During the process of isolating rare cells from blood or other biological samples, it is necessary to identify the target cells from among the other nucleated cells that may be present in a sample. When isolating rare cells, a variety of other cells may also be present, such as for example white blood cells (WBCs). For isolating circulating tumor cells (CTCs), the standard method involves staining for epithelial cells using cytokeratin antibody, and ruling out false positive cytokeratin stained cells by also staining with anti-CD45 antibody, in a effort to detect only CTCs.
In pending US Patent Application No. 20100255479, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety, methods for using multiple antibodies for CTC capture are described.
Despite the availability of these methods, additional detection reagents and methods are needed for detection of cells, such as CTCs. Such reagents and methods would allow for diagnostic assays as well as other clinically relevant assays.
The present invention describes reagents and methods useful for detection of cells in biological samples. For example, the present invention provides reagents and methods that can be used for detection of rare cells, such as CTCs in biological samples.